Making It Work
by Roxie Archer
Summary: Hao is drawn to Yoh and has come to accept that he wants him, might even love him, but the world does not revolve around Hao and making it work may be more difficult than he had first imagined. yaoi HaoYoh
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Shaman King is the intellectual property of Hiroyuki Takei

Author's Comments: I have no idea where this is going, but then, neither does Hao, so I suppose it's ok.

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**Making It Work**

"Hao, …you shouldn't be here." He looks away, at the ground, like he's ashamed of me. I brush it off. I've learned to do that.

"Well you see, that's the thing about power, Yoh. Having it means you can go anywhere you want to and not have to worry about weather or not you "belong" there."

He doesn't reply, just stares at the ground letting the words sink in.

"Power is the only thing in life that can guarantee freedom. Without power, you will always be at the mercy of others."

"You're such a preacher." I am taken aback, not so much by his tone, which is not overly pleased, but by the words themselves. And he finally looks up at me with eyes that smolder with anger. "Why don't you go get a soap box and take it somewhere else. Cause I'm tired of hearing it. It's the same sermon every time." I could feel my own eyes darken. They say criticism can only affect you if you truly care what your criticizer thinks, but then, I've known that I cared for Yoh's opinion from the beginning. Apparently some time had passed while I considered these things as Yoh's next statement was devoid of all of its previous anger. Yoh's anger seldom lasts long. "At least get some new material."

I grinned at that. "Are you saying that you enjoy our time together, otouto?"

Yoh looked away again, his emotions looping back to where we'd started. "All I'm saying is that you are my brother. And as long as you're not putting me in a position where I have to kill you, it might be nice if we acted like it a little, you know. I mean, we're twins, but the only thing I even know about you are those broken-record philosophies you start reciting every time we see eachother."

I considered that for a moment. "I didn't know you had any interest in knowing me. As you said, otouto, our previous encounters have done little to foster friendship between us."

"I don't try to change you when we meet." Yoh whispers.

"I don't try to _change_ you." I argue back. "I have simply been trying to open your eyes to the evils of the horrendous people you persistently try to save. … And you try to show me their good side, because you believe them to be worth saving for it. What we disagree on is weather it is the evil or the good they have done which outweighs the other."

"And then there's that."

I blinked back at my twin, honestly not understanding what he was talking about. "What?"

"Whenever I ask you anything personal, you change the subject." I honestly hadn't been aware that I _had_ changed the subject, but, looking back, I guess… Not only was Yoh ashamed of me, now he was also exasperated by me. Wow. It's a record night.

"There's not much to me, Yoh." I consented. "I haven't lived a life like yours; with friends and school and fun. I've lived my entire life for the sake of my dream of the rebirth of this planet – without humans in it. I haven't enjoyed what they provide so much. I like the stars. I think that's about it."

"Oh."

And now he's sad. Am I the only person on this planet who is able to depress the normally happy, care-free Yoh? Does that make me special? Somehow, I like the idea of being able to affect him in ways that no one else can. Vaguely, I wonder what other emotions I could draw from him that he never shows to anyone else. I walk closer to him, slowly, I glide to him.

"I like the color red." I offer him. "I like peaceful summers, slow breezes, raging storms." I reach out, touching his face gently. It startles him and his eyes meet mine, widened with uncertainty and fear and hope. "I like innocence and loyalty and you." I whisper leaning forward until my eyes reflect in his. I know that what he's feeling is fear, but I can accept that, because it's a special fear, only for me. His lips, as I touch them with mine, are full and soft and I draw his bottom lip between my own and suck on it, enjoying the taste of things one should never be able to taste; innocence and ideals and kindness that can only be found in my brother. No one else could be so untainted. I am my brother's only sin. I release his lip and, now that they're parted, I cannot help but want more of the sweet ambrosia I'd found. I slip my tongue inside and I find myself wondering how long I've wanted to do this. I'd never thought about it before, but with me that doesn't mean much. I think I've wanted to do a lot of things I've never thought of before; if that makes any sense.

Eventually I have to let him breathe so I pull away and I wonder as I do if I might possibly regret what I've done when I see the expression on his face but it isn't likely. I've never wasted time on regrets; even if I would do things differently when thinking back. No, I never regretted killing Lyserg's parents, because they were in my way, but I don't think I would do it a second time, if given the chance.

I can tell when I see his expression, that Yoh is still trying to process what just happened. His eyes are out of focus and his mouth is still open. I graciously close it for him. "You know you're absolutely right." I tell him. And I smile that gentle smile that I save for only Opacho and him. "I did need some new material."

His eyes refocus and I think this is the perfect time to make my exit. So before he can say anything I am gone, in a whirl of flames to places he can't follow. I don't want to hear the stuttering and the accusations and the questions. I want to give him time to think about it and we'll talk later. I want to give him enough time to come to the conclusion that I am beyond what is right and what is sin and not so much time that I question it myself. I figure that's about four days, maybe five or six.

Sitting atop a lonely hill, I stare up at the stars. I strive to think of nothing but I still taste Yoh on my tongue and my lips and I doubt that pleasurable distraction will allow my usual thoughts to settle in any time soon. But that's ok, I don't mind, they weren't terribly important thoughts anyway. I wonder what Yoh is thinking just now. I expect he's thinking that I have become a pervert of some sort. I assume I shall have to explain myself when next we meet. I shall make fun of him for complaining about my "sermons" only to turn around and ask for more of them. As I think on it more I decide that I am looking forward to that meeting. The thought of it gives me great joy.

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Post whatevers: This wrote itself, that's all I can say for it. It seems to have a constant irregularity of past/present tense, but that's all gramatical. Eventually I just said, you know what, it sounds good anyway so who cares. Some fanatical grammar freak might have a heart attack over it but oh well. Please review if you enjoyed it...do it because the gekko says to, because apparently, people _trust_ the gekko. Trust the gekko.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: I was kinda hoping for more reviews than I got, given the over 180 hits, but a big thanks to those who did review! I really like this fic but I've been summer-lazy lately so I haven't been writing much. I'll try, though.

Oh, yea...Opacho...I always thought Opacho was a boy but I just recently heard someone say he was a girl. Personally, I don't think it matters one way or the other but I'll be calling him a boy and if you can prove me wrong, please do so I'll know for next time.

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_Making It Work : 2_

It was _not,_ I had told myself, and Opacho when he'd seemed to think it _was_, that I was having second thoughts in visiting my brother. The reason that I hadn't visited him by day six, was that at some point during day four, Horohoro, that freeloading Ainu from the north had unexpectedly, unceremoniously, and unannounced, parked his freeloading butt at Yoh's inn; in the room directly across the hall from Yoh nonetheless. And Anna was back. I dislike Anna.

But by now, thoughts of my brother were haunting not only my dreams but my waking hours as well. And frankly, I could not stand Opacho's snickering at me when I awoke in the morning to discover that I'd called … or maybe moaned… out his name in my sleep, at a time when, of course, I had no control over my thoughts. Admitting that I have no control over something pains me greatly. One would think that with power like mine, one could, at the very least, control their dreams.

So it is with great precaution, that I am now sitting in Yoh's open window on the sixth night, silent as the grave but betrayed by the revealing moon at my back. I have been here for some time now. I have discovered that I like watching Yoh sleep. His peaceful expression puts me at ease and it is not something that I relish the thought of disturbing. I find I am content and after an agonizing six days of nothing to think of but Yoh, my thoughts are blank. Yoh does not talk in his sleep. He doesn't move much. His expression is peacefully blank.

I allow my foot to fall gently down to the hardwood floor, the weight of my body and second foot following fluidly. Yoh does not stir so I take a seat at his side. I cross my feet and watch him from here as he sleeps. I think of reaching out to comb my fingers through his hair or pulling the thin blanket of his higher over his chest to guard him from the slight breeze I have let into the room, but I do not move. I do not touch him because I honestly don't know just how badly I want to touch him. And I feel that is something I should know before I reach out for him.

In spite of myself, I release my chi a little. I want him to wake up. Slowly I unmask my presence, just enough to alert him, but not enough to alert the freeloader or the shrew. Yoh would be cross if I looked at them in the way I look at food for my spirit.

"Hao."

I look down from the door to find Yoh looking up at me with tired eyes. He lays there for a moment. I sit where I am, looking down at him. It occurs to me a moment later, as he's dragging himself to a sitting position on his futon, that I might have used that now lost moment to lean down to kiss him. That would have been better, if I'd thought of it in time.

"What are you doing here?" Yoh whispers, in that tone that says he isn't sure he really wants to know.

I recover quickly enough, though. "What? I'm not allowed to visit my beloved brother?"

Yoh sighs, as though he's resigned himself to dealing with my exasperating ways for the night. Then he smiled to himself and looked down at the blanket in his lap. I was curious to know what he was thinking but Yoh isn't the type to leave you wondering. "I read a book once," I felt an eyebrow rise at this. Small talk, now? "it had a word in it for people like you." he went on and I might have thought he was insulting me but he didn't quite seem upset enough to start swearing at me, even inventively, so I kept silent to hear what he had to say. "You're a slitherer-outer." he said, and began to laugh to himself over it.

"_Excuse me?_"

Yoh covered his mouth with one hand to muffle the giggles as I stared at him like he was crazy. "Every time I ask you something you just slither out of it." he explained. "You're a slitherer-outer."

"I am not a "_slither-er-outer_."" I informed him indignantly. "You just made that up."

"You are." he returned, the laughter subsiding.

I huffed at that, sounding all too childish for my taste. "I thought you didn't like my speeches." I said in my defense.

"You have to make a speech out of why you're in my room in the middle of the night?" Yoh replied and I could see that it was going to be one of those nights. As I recall, I had been the one in charge of our last encounter but now it seemed that Yoh had turned the tables on me, or at the very least, had caught on to me.

"I enjoy watching you sleep." I said in all honesty.

Yoh blushed slightly and for a moment I foolishly thought that I had regained the upper hand. But no, Yoh had had six days to prepare for this and apparently, six days was a few too many. I always had underestimated my brother.

"That's suspiciously sentimental." Yoh said, the statement lacking a certain emotional quality that might have made it sound less accusatory were it present. "Well in that case, I suppose I'll just go back to sleep then. Far be it from me to deny my "beloved brother" his small pleasures." And Yoh made a small show of laying back down, his back to me, and pulling the blanket up to his shoulders with a firm tug while I watched in shock.

My mouth fell open. My mind stuttered for a response. _That little brat._ Fine, damnit. I could be direct. I leaned over him, looking down at him for a moment. Yoh turned to look back at me and my hair fell into a curtain around us. And I kissed my brother for the second time. He didn't resist, but like last time, nor did he participate. I demanded entrance and received it from an uncertain mouth. I got carried away a little, pressed a little hard, and he whimpered a little for air. I pulled away and repositioned myself so that I was straddling him and looking down at him as he looked away to catch his breath.

"Is that what you wanted, otouto?" I asked sardonically.

Yoh whipped his gaze back to mine with blazing eyes. "I wanted you to answer me!" he answered, speaking harshly, and I could tell that had he not caught himself, it would have been a shout. "Why is that so hard for you? I want to know why you're suddenly so interested in me. I don't trust you." he spat and I couldn't blame him in the slightest really, sitting on top of him in the middle of the night.

"I desire you." I whispered in the darkness. "These things are as beyond me as they are you, otouto. I wish your affection, your smile, your gentle touch, the taste of you…" I leaned down for more of that taste but Yoh moved his head so I settled for his neck instead, threading my fingers into his hair in what I hoped was an affectionate manor. "I don't know why." I mumbled against his warm, moist skin. "It's all your fault, for being kind and strong and gentle and cocky. We are two halves of the same whole. Is this not the natural course of us? Is there nothing of me you desire? I would protect you, even your friends, I would hold you, I would appreciate you. I would learn…" Hesitantly, Yoh's fingers found my hair, sinking into its long strands slowly and then taking fistfuls of it harshly as he moved his mouth to find mine and allow me to kiss him as he kissed back.

I felt whole for the first time in my existence, truly complete and at peace. My reasoning for cleansing the world, for absorbing Yoh into myself; it was for this feeling. I had thought if I could purify the world or if I could purify myself by becoming whole, then maybe I could feel this way but instead I found it in my brother's kiss. It was such a simple solution that I wanted to laugh right there but now that I'd found it, I knew I could never let it go. Not now. As Yoh pulled away, crimson staining his cheeks scarlet, I finally realized, feeling like the idiot he must have always known that I was, that the feeling I had been searching so desperately, so violently for, was…happiness. I pulled the cream colored wrap from my shoulders and Yoh gave me a startled look but I paid it no heed as I tossed it aside and looked down into his depthless brown eyes.

"Let me stay." I said, seeking permission from him for it.

It was the single stupidest thing I had ever done and I was unsure of it even then, but I was determined. Yoh opened his mouth to say something but closed it again silently and nodded. I moved to the side, lying beside him, and gathered Yoh into my arms. He huddled there uncertainly, unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry." I whispered into the night. "I'm sorry I ever left you. I'm sorry that circumstances are as they are." Yoh said nothing, just huddled in on himself in my embrace. But he was in my embrace. "I will be your brother from now on." I could feel Yoh smile.

"Your sense of relationships is a little skewed." he said through his smile and, unbidden, a smile tugged at my own lips.

I let time pass, let the smiles fade, before I spoke again. "Are you happy?" I asked, knowing that it must have sounded like an afterthought. "Can I make you happy?"

Yoh settled a hand against my chest, splayed it experimentally over the warm pulse beneath. "Let's start with breakfast. And if you manage not to slither out of that…we'll see."

I smiled. 'We'll see'. That was just like Yoh. "Breakfast with _Lady Anna_ the Asakura-wannabe and the freeloader," I mused "that should be interesting to say the least. Now don't go thinking you can domesticate me, otouto, just because I refrain from killing at the breakfast table."

Yoh smiled to himself again. "We'll see." he repeated, meaning my ability to restrain myself and I couldn't help but grin in return as I embraced him. This "slitherer-outer" thing works both ways, I think.

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Post whatevers: The book Yoh mentioned, if you haven't read it, is Howl's Moving Castle, which was an amazing book and not much like the movie. If you liked the movie, read the book, and if you didn't like the movie (you wierd alien-person) ... read the book, you might like that better.

So Hao's agreed to breakfast with Anna, can anyone say "catastrophe"?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Shaman King is the intellectual property of Hiroyuki Takei

Author's Notes: Again, thank you to those who reviewed. Sorry to make you wait a month.

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**Making it Work: 3**

I am not a morning person. Not that I am incapable of getting up in the morning I just … didn't _want_ to. I have found that lying on a futon with my brother, holding his warm slumbering body against mine; that I am far more content than I have any right to be. So when that harpy's voice sounded throughout the residence; Anna no-longer-soon-to-be Asakura yelling to get out of bed and come to breakfast, I felt more than entitled to be a little pissed.

Unfortunately, Yoh felt compelled to obey her, not only waking immediately from a sound sleep, but then to further wound me; he also dragged himself to his feet and waited patiently for me to do the same. I seriously considered just turning around and going back to sleep; ignoring him out of pure defiance, but then I remembered that I had promised to attend the function for which Yoh was so patiently awaiting my participation.

I growled under my breath as I stood, brushing off my pants. Yoh grinned and turned to his clothing cabinet. I decided, since I'd already been domesticated into waking when told, I might as well turn my back too and give him his privacy. I found my wrap near the bed and pulled it on, running my fingers through my hair to give it the appearance of having been tended to. Yoh returned to roll his futon and stow it away on a shelf and then he went to the door, smiling back at me as an invitation to join him. I sighed and followed him to the door which he opened and then closed behind me. I wonder if he thought I would leave it standing open if he ignored it.

Just as we started moving away, the door across the hall opened and Horohoro trudged out, closing his door without turning to look at it. He looked like he wasn't even awake yet and he brought his hand up in an attempt to cover an enormous yawn. "Mornin' Yoh." He slurred the words a bit and I found myself staring at him. Not only did he still sport that oversized coat but he'd thrown it on with no undershirt and left the thing open. His breath reeked of fish, like he'd made a midnight snack of it and the corner of his boxers was visible just above the waistline of his shorts. What a slob. He yawned again and moved with us down the hallway, like a small flock of migrating sheep. "Mornin' Hao." he added and I raised an eyebrow with interest wondering how long it would take him to assess his own words. It didn't take long. Horo's eyes shot open and his gaze whipped in my direction with a look of shock. "H…Hao!" he screeched, tripping back into the wall.

Yoh chose then to speak up. "Mornin' Horo." he returned tiredly, waving a hand over his shoulder in greeting.

Horo looked back to Yoh and the look on his face was so comical I couldn't help but break into laughter. I stood there in the hallway of Yoh's house laughing my head off at the increasingly flustered Ainu until I could hardly stand and had to lean against the opposite wall, hugging myself to try and keep breathing. Yoh seemed amused but Horo was looking at me like I had sprouted antlers or something and when Yoh finally looked back at Horo with that look on his face, he started laughing too, hiding it behind a hand, until Horo finally screamed. "_What's going on!_"

"I'm sorry." Yoh was quick to apologize as I gathered myself and leveled my breathing.

"What's he _doing_ here?" Horo went on hysterically. "What's going on?"

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked, finally calmed.

Yoh pointed the way out to me and I left the two standing in the hallway with Yoh trying to calm his friend and assure him that no, he had not just stepped into the twilight zone. I felt so stupid. I don't think I've ever laughed like that before in my life, let alone in front of someone I probably should have been trying to terrify into submission with a death glare. I had the vague impression that I should have been trying to relay some impression of myself on Yoh's friends and I had just sailed right past it. Now he'd just think I was psychotic. Terrific. I thought, sarcastically.

I slid open the door of the bathroom and stopped short as a spirit rose from the toilet, moaning in what I could only guess was an attempt to scare me. But then the old man got a good look at me and his eyes went wide in terror and he fled. I felt very put out. I mean; _what the heck_! It's not like I piss streams of fire or anything. This day was just not going well. I could only imagine what breakfast would be like. Oh, Anna would have a royal fit. I finished my business and left to find the dinning area so I could get this over with just as quickly as possible. If I wasn't going to fight back, I might as well just let her hang me now.

The sounds of fighting eventually led me to Yoh and the others, well, I should say, the sound of Anna having found out that I was roaming about somewhere in her house allowed me to track them from one end of the residence to the other. I stood just around the corner for a minute enjoying the havoc my presence was creating. Anna was hysterical and, if I were being honest, she made some very good points arguing against me. Yes, I had tried to wipe Yoh off the face of the planet, and yes I'd tried to kill his friends, and I suppose I had fed a few spirits to my own just to upset him. Yoh's only defense seemed to be that I was his brother, as if that, even being the only thing in my favor, could hold it's own as a valid reason for not heading off to the execution block. Even Horo whispered those words in Yoh's defense. "Well, he _is_ his brother. Family's important." Unfortunately their defense was weak to begin with and they only lost confidence in it every time they repeated it in the face of Anna's valid case against me. Even I was beginning to doubt that my being here was a good idea. Maybe I had nothing to offer Yoh that he wouldn't be better off without. I knew it wasn't right to profess my love for him and then be selfish about it. Maybe the profession itself was selfish. But now I had no choice because I told myself I had made a commitment and I was determined not to go back on my word.

"Well isn't it nice to be the center of attention." I said, announcing my presence as I stepped into the room. Yoh and Horo fell silent but Anna was another story.

"_You_! Get out of my house! I know exactly what you're up to. This is some sort of plot to get to Yoh. Well I won't let it happen. You just get out right now!"

I raised an eyebrow. "That's kind of harsh, Lady Anna." I said, feigning hurt over it. "I suppose it's true." I added, with a grin. "But probably not in the way you think." I don't think she liked the look that I was giving her. I know that a lesser man would have keeled over by now under the look that she was giving me. "Besides," I added gently "I'm a guest of Yoh's. I've been invited to breakfast. Are you really going to throw me out?"

Oh, I wish I had a camera. Anna was fuming and it was so funny, but I knew she would cave. I had won. "Fine." she said, spitting the word out at me. "I won't have my meals disrupted by you. Sit." And she began to pass plates around the table, first to Horo and then Yoh and finally to me where I had chose to sit next to my brother.

"Thank you, Anna." Yoh said quietly as she took her seat.

From my brother's right, Horo spoke up, trying to ease the tension I suppose. It was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. "So hey, are we still goin' ta visit Ren's place after breakfast?"

Yoh grinned back at the Ainu. "Sure thing. Manta said he'd stop buy and then we can all go."

"You're hiding something." Anna said levelly, staring across the table at me.

I brought my attention back from my brother to address her, swallowing another slice of bacon. "Of course I am. Isn't everyone? We all have our "dirty little secrets" after all."

Anna shook her head. "Not Yoh." she stated with conviction. "Yoh is honest. You might have trouble understanding that, but Yoh and I don't hide things from eachother."

"Oh?" I questioned, smiling back at her. I was entirely wrong in the assumption that I wouldn't enjoy this.

Yoh was fiddling with his food nervously. And of course, nothing gets by Lady Anna.

"Tell him, Yoh." she ordered. "Tell him we don't keep secrets."

"Well, you see Anna," Yoh mumbled, swallowing. I looked over to him in mild shock. He wasn't actually going to tell her, was he? "the thing is… I mean, it's not like it was a _secret_ or anything. It just…didn't come up."

"_What_ didn't come up?" Anna prompted with a warning tone.

"You see…Hao, he spent the night. And he's been coming around lately. We've been…getting closer."

"Getting closer?"

I didn't like that tone in her voice. It sent off little warning bells in my head. But I figured it couldn't get much worse, right? I mean, that was pretty much the extent of what he'd tell her, so, there was only one more little outburst left when she said she didn't like the sound of it and left it at that. Nothing to worry about.

"Yea." Yoh confirmed. "I figure its cause we're twins, you know? I feel…whole…when he's around. And…it's nice when he kisses me. It feels good."

… My brother is an idiot.

As predicted, Anna was … not happy.

"_He what!_"

"You didn't have to tell her that." I pointed out, leaning over to speak with my brother.

"Well, I might not have, if you hadn't set the bait like that." he returned.

"Well, just because the bait's there doesn't mean you have to take it." I reasoned back. "You're not a fish."

Anna apparently, was too disgusted to speak to me now, as she turned her wrath on Horohoro, the only innocent one at the table. Horo, I noticed, seemed to be quite interested in the conversation, following it from person to person with rapt attention. Isn't it nice that we can be his entertainment.

"Don't _you_ have anything to say!" she demanded and Horo looked to her with that confused look of his that he's probably had patented by now.

"Not really." he answered. And you could tell it was the honest truth and he couldn't for the life of him see why he was being called to question. "I promised Pirika that if it didn't work out for her with her current boyfriend and things don't work out for me that I'd marry her and have seven kids."

I think it's safe to say everyone was stunned.

Anna recovered first, of course, but then…she had this new look on her face. I might have said I felt a chill but I wrote it off as paranoia.

"I knew you were up to something." she said, turning to me like she'd just discovered some national secret. "That's it, isn't it? You're doing this to wipe out the Asakura line!"

Yoh's head jerked toward me, his eyes widened in a horrible look of hurt and I know my own eyes widen back at him as what she's saying finally dawns on me.

"If you're with Yoh there'll be no more Asakura descendants." Anna goes on, standing now and pointing at me. "You're doing this just to halt the blood line! So there'll be no one left to oppose you the next time you reincarnate!"

Yoh shakes his head slowly but I know he's considering the possibility; he's starting to believe it, because, yea, that _would_ be a damn good reason, so I do the only thing I can. I take a stand to defend myself.

"That's not true!" I shout back at her before I can properly compose myself. After a deep breath I continue. "Look, Lady Anna, you overestimate me." I say, finally able to grin calmly in her face. "My reasonings are far more selfish than that. I just want to be happy. But hey," I go on (and looking back, this is the point where I should have stopped, right here, but I was getting cocky now, talking back to miss high-and-mighty) "if it's so important for you to have an Asakura descendant, then come on, let's go. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, right?"

Out of the corner of my eye, it seemed Yoh's face had gone white and Anna…Anna looked positively disgusted. Horo seemed to be choking on something.

"I hope that you don't honestly think that I would ever…_in my life_…touch you! Not if you were the last _thing_ on the face of this planet! Not to mention that I am affianced to Yoh." she added, indicating my brother, who still looked a bit pale.

"What? It has to be Yoh? Fine!" I shouted, flailing my arms. "Just get it over with so we can all get on with our lives and be happy! He never wanted to marry you to begin with!"

"Wait…" Yoh's voice interrupted my tirade momentarily and I looked down at him to find my brother did not look pleased. "Did you just sell me out for _sex?_"

"_What?_" I could not believe this. "That's not what I meant…"

Anna looked to Horo again, turning her glare on him. "Is there some reason you look like you're enjoying this?" she demanded and it seemed Horo could no longer hold it in as he literally fell off the chair laughing. We all stared down at the Ainu, rolling on the floor in a hysterical fit of laughter.

"This is priceless!" he managed, still clutching himself as he barked with laugher. I frowned.

That was when the doorbell rang. Yoh got up hesitantly to answer it, leaving Anna and I in a rather awkward state, standing there staring at the idiot on the floor who seemed to be having a good laugh at our expense…or at least at my expense, anyway.

This was…definitely not going as I'd pictured it. I decided that it had probably been when I'd mentioned descendants that it had gotten out of hand. Really, I was only trying to solve the problem and get it out of the way. I suppose I'd thought if I didn't mind her having her descendant, she'd have nothing left to bitch about. Yes, there was definitely an error in that thought. To Anna, I'm the bad guy…no matter what. Not that I can blame her…

Yoh returned to the room with Manta a moment later. He said hi to everyone, he said hi to me. I waved back, wishing I hadn't gotten out of bed this morning. Horo picked himself up off the floor to greet him cheerily. Things seemed to move around me from there.

Yoh told Anna that quote "we should get going" and she told me she would be quote "calling the elders about you".

Manta asked if I was going too.

"Going where?" I asked.

"To visit Ren." he answered and I could remember that Horo had mentioned something about that.

I looked to Yoh. I didn't know if he even wanted me around at this point, I could very well have set myself back to square one with this incident, but he just shook his head and said "Let's just forget this ever happened and start over, ok?"

I nodded gratefully.

And then Horohoro opened his big mouth. "Yea, couldn't get that hole much deeper anyway." he said, grinning insanely and nudging me in the arm with his elbow.

I glared back, looking from my violated arm to him. "Do that again and I'll feed you to my spirit." He backed off after that.

I did not feel bad about leaving Lady Anna with less than a wonderful opinion of me. I also was not the least bit concerned with her threat of sicking the elders on me. What were they gonna do, shake their walking sticks at me? I did, however, resolve to carefully guard every single word that came out of my mouth for the remainder of the day. I think that I may have flirted with Ren a bit when I was trying to seduce him with power during the tournament and I would like for Yoh not to have that to dwell on along with all the other reasons for hating me that I've given him today. That "hole", as Horo put it, really could get a lot deeper if I wasn't careful.

And last night had been so nice, too.

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Post whatevers: Well, there it is. Chapter 3. I'm assuming if you're still reading you must like it ok, so please review. I was hoping to have the next chapter finished before I updated this one, but alas, it is not. Chapter 4: Ren's appartment! Oh, and before I forget, I know that Anna is very meticulous about what they eat and bacon is not exactly something she'd go for but I assume that after a while they'd have her worn down at least a little in some areas. Maybe they eat whatever Yoh wants once a month or something. Lucky Hao, he dropped in on bacon day!


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